


Where No One Knows Your Name

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Series: Andreil Week 2019 [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Andreil Week 2019, M/M, Phobias, Road Trips, Secrets, except not really, hit and run
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-24 09:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19720660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: Abram buries his mother on the beach and then he runs.  He doesn't get far.





	1. Chapter 1

His eyes were still blurry from smoke and tears when he began to run. His duffel slid awkwardly against his back and he wished that he had swapped it for his mother’s backpack, even though it was smaller. But it was too late now. Now that it was wrapped in sand and contained the fire blackened bones of the only person left on this earth who knew him and loved him.

He wasn’t expecting the headlights. They appeared out of nowhere and gave him no time to get out of the way. There was a squeal of tires and a bone rattling jolt and Abram’s lungs gasped for air as his mind screamed at him to keep running.

“Shit, are you dead?” A curiously flat voice spoke and the headlights were blocked as a person crouched at his head.

“No,” Abram croaked. “I’m fine.”

“How fine?” A face came into focus and hovered over Abram. He was young, around Abram’s age or maybe a year or two older.

Abram tried to sit and the other boy sat back and moved out of his way. His ribs screamed at him and he fell back, gasping.

“I’ll call an ambulance for you but I can’t stay here and wait for it,” the boy said. 

“No,” Abram shook his head, groaning as it ignited fire in his head and neck. “No hospital.”

The boy’s eyes narrowed. “A runaway then?”

“No,” Abram protested. “I just don’t like hospitals.”

The boy studied him for a while. “If you can get up under your own power. I’ll take you with me and drop you off. If not, I’m calling that ambulance. I’m not going to just leave you to die out here.”

Abram groaned as he tried sitting up again. This time he pushed through it and managed to balance upright. Getting to his feet was harder and, true to his word, the other boy made no move to help him.

His ankle throbbed when he moved it and even lightly resting his foot on the ground sent bolts of pain up through his calf. As much as his ribs ached with every movement, it was much easier to hop around to the passenger seat rather than hobble on his hopefully sprained ankle.

He closed his eyes when he finally collapsed into the passenger seat of the vehicle. He felt the old shocks complain as the other boy joined him in the car. They sat in silence for a while before the boy broke the silence.

“Where am I taking you?” he asked.

“Oh,” Abram said. Until that point he hadn’t even considered it. When he fled the beach, all he could think of was getting away. The house they had last squatted in was several states away and they hadn’t had time to even think of where to go next. They hadn’t been travelling to somewhere, they had just been running.

“Runaway,” the other boy confirmed. “I knew you were full of shit.”

“Where are you going?” Abram asked.

The boy looked cagey and ignored him, fiddling with wires under the dashboard and coaxing the vehicle into reluctant life. “I’ll take you as far as San Jose,” he said. “Is that acceptable.”

Abram nodded and relaxed into the seat as the boy pulled them back out onto the road. The car stunk of gasoline and dust and there were springs sticking out of the seat and into his backside but in spite of himself his eyes began to close. He fought sleep as long as he could but there was nothing he could do. He wasn’t even sure how many days he had been awake now and it was all crashing over him at once like a tidal wave. He looked over at the boy but he seemed content to ignore Abram and stare at the road ahead. 

There was nothing he could do but wind the straps of his duffel bag tight around his arm and let the sound of the engine pull him into sleep.

* * *

“Wake up,” a voice at Abram’s ear snapped him out of sleep. He looked out the windshield and realized they were stopped at a roadside diner and the cold gray light of dawn was just beginning to colour the horizon. “I’m hungry and we need gas.”

Abram nodded. The passenger seat wasn’t built for sleeping in and abused muscles protested his movement. But he took stock of himself and besides the ankle that throbbed and had swollen tight, nothing more was wrong with him than bruises. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out his emergency twenty and held it out to the boy. “I can pay for gas.”

The boy glared at him. “I hit you with a car.”

Abram shrugged and, knowing that it might make him a target for theft, said, “I have more.”

The boy glared and snatched the money from his hand. “Can you get yourself in there to order breakfast or do I need to carry you?”

Abram pulled himself out of the car and tested his balance. He was in pain but it was bearable. He hobbled into the diner and took a seat in the corner with his back to the wall.

A tired waitress trudged over to his table, coffee pot in hand. “What can I getcha?” she asked.

“Coffee?” Abram said. “Two cups. And I guess we’ll look at some menus?” She nodded and filled two mugs and left.

Abram traced his name in the grease shining on the table top and stared down at it. The boy came and took a seat beside him, angling himself so he could also watch the doors. Abram snatched a napkin and wiped it across the table in front of him, smearing the carefully drawn letters so no one could ever read them again.

The boy nodded approvingly at the coffee before grabbing the sugar dispenser and pouring half of it into the cup. He grabbed half of the creamers in the little dish on the table and emptied them in one by one. He raised his eyebrow at Abram and Abram shrugged and shoved the rest of the dish closer to the boy. He picked up his own cup and took a sip. It was awful, strong and burnt, but he could feel the last wisps of fog drifting away replaced by artificial alertness.

“What’s your name?” the boy asked.

Abram looked down at the table, not even a ghost of the letters left behind. He couldn’t be Abram anymore. He had only ever been Abram to her and she was gone. 

“It’s not meant to be a hard question,” the boy said.

“Neil, my name is Neil,” he said. 

“Andrew,” the boy offered. He didn’t say anything else and the waitress interrupted them with menus a moment later.

Neil ordered blueberry pancakes and Andrew ordered some kind of waffle monstrosity with marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and sprinkles. Neil shuddered as he watched Andrew shovel it into his open mouth. They ate in silence.

They got back in the car and Andrew started it once more. 

“My mother’s dead,” Neil blurted out. And there it was, out in the world. He couldn’t take it back. He’d spoken it aloud and now it was true.

Andrew nodded. “Mine is too. I’m going to Columbia to rescue my brother from my asshole uncle.”

Neil nodded.

There was another long stretch of silence before Andrew spoke again. “Do you still want me to leave you in San Jose?”

Neil shook his head.

Andrew shrugged and pulled out of the parking lot. “Then I won’t,” he said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Andreil week day 2: Secrets

Andrew made one more stop before they got back on the road. He ran into a little 24 hour convenience store and came back out with a big bag of gummy candies and other road snacks and a big soda cup full of ice. He emptied the ice into a plastic grocery bag and wrapped it in an old rag that he pulled out of the trunk before handing the makeshift ice pack to Neil.

Neil held it, confused.

“It’s for your ankle, dumbass,” Andrew’s eyebrows wrinkled as he scowled at Neil.

“I’m fine,” Neil said reflexively.

“Get in the backseat,” Andrew said.

“Gonna be my chauffeur now?” Neil smirked.

Andrew just gave him a withering glance and waited for him to comply.

Neil shrugged and pulled himself carefully to a standing position before switching seats. He gingerly lowered himself into the back. 

“Slide farther in,” Andrew said.

“Why?” Neil asked, squinting suspiciously and wondering if he had been too careless.

“You should elevate it,” Andrew explained. “Can I look at it?”

Neil considered a little longer before sliding his hips back along the bench seat and sticking his injured foot out in front of him.

Andrew hovered with his hands not quite touching Neil.

“It’s okay, you can touch it,” Neil said.

Andrew nodded and carefully tugged at the laces of Neil’s shoes and eased his foot out. Neil wanted to cry, not from pain although it was substantial, but because he honestly couldn’t remember the last time someone had been careful, gentle even, with one of his injuries.

Neil hissed as Andrew prodded at the swollen ankle and bent it to test the range of motion.

“Can you wiggle your toes?” Andrew asked.

It hurt but Neil managed to produce enough motion that Andrew nodded.

“Not broken then,” he said as he dug around in the bag of snacks and pulled out a cheap elastic bandage. He wrapped up Neil’s ankle snugly and balanced the ice pack over top.

“What’s the verdict, doc?” Neil teased. “Am I gonna live?”

“I doubt it,” Andrew said. “Gangrene will set in soon, most likely, and then we’ll have to cut it off.”

Neil laughed.

Andrew’s shoulders hunched up by his ears and he glared in response to Neil’s smile. He said nothing but dug around in the bag again and hurled a bottle of water and a small package of ibuprofen at Neil’s head before stomping back over to the driver’s seat and getting them back on the road.

Neil drifted off again. He wasn’t sure how long he slept but by the time he woke again, the sun was well over the horizon. He yawned and stretched, noting some stiffness but surprisingly little pain considering it hadn’t been so many hours since he had been hit by a car.

“Where are we going again?” Neil asked.

“Columbia,” Andrew said shortly.

“Right, asshole brother,” Neil yawned.

“Asshole uncle,” Andrew corrected.

Neil looked out the front and noticed Andrew wavering a little over the centre line. “Hey, Andrew, do you need to take a break?”

“No,” Andrew replied, pulling a gummy candy out of the bag and chewing down. 

“You can only go so long on sugar,” Neil started.

Andrew interrupted him by holding up a red bull and taking a big swig to chase down the candy.

“I can drive,” Neil said.

“You have a sprained ankle,” Andrew argued.

“Sprained left ankle. My right is fine,” Neil said. He leaned up between the seats to get closer to Andrew but backed off when Andrew flinched away and nearly drove off the road.

“Do you have your license?” Andrew asked.

“Do you?” Neil shot back.

“Touche,” Andrew put on his right turn signal and slowed to pull over onto the side of the road.

Neil hobbled over to the driver’s seat and Andrew slid across the bench seat to the passenger side.

“Stay on this road until you hit Flagstaff. We can stop there and eat,” Andrew waited for Neil’s nod and pulled the hood of his sweater down over his eyes and was soon snoring softly beside Neil.

Neil pulled back out onto the highway. He was a little jittery at first considering the last time he had been behind the wheel of a car, his mother had been bleeding out beside him and he hadn’t even known. He looked sharply at Andrew but of course there was nothing wrong.

The car was old and obviously stolen. Neil was already making plans to ditch it somewhere along the road and swap it for another one. He was feeling a little antsy already not knowing how many hours ago Andrew had taken it and how long it would take for it to be missed. At least it wasn’t flashy.

He drove for another two hours before he saw signs for Flagstaff and pulled over at another diner. He reached over to shake Andrew awake. The moment he touched the sleeping boy, Andrew struck like a cobra, grabbing his wrist and twisting it away from him.

“Ow, shit,” Neil yanked his hand back and cradled it to his chest.

Andrew didn’t apologize, just glared at him. “Don’t do that again.”

“We’re in Flagstaff,” Neil said.

“What time is it?” Andrew asked.

Neil shrugged. He wasn’t sure where he had lost his watch. Sometime between the moment the bullet hit his mother and now, he supposed.

Andrew squinted at the grimy dashboard and rubbed the screen with one dirty sleeve. “About 1:30,” he announced.

Neil’s stomach growled and he grinned sheepishly. 

Andrew led the way into the diner, practically a mirror image of the one where they had eaten breakfast. Same formica tables and countertops, same stained coffee pots, same dead-eyed waitress paid too little to care.

They were back on the road shortly after two, a couple extra sandwiches and an ice pack in the back seat. Andrew was driving again and Neil was tempted to doze off, sleeping off his lunch. Andrew was blinking slowly too.

“Your brother, is he older or younger?” Neil asked.

“What business is it of yours?” Andrew snarled at him.

“Sorry, I thought maybe you needed a little help staying awake,” Neil felt his face heat and he turned to stare out at the road.

“Then why don’t you tell me who you’re running away from?” Andrew said before letting the silence stretch between them.

Neil tried to answer. He really did but every time he opened his mouth and felt the secrets rise up, the ghost of his mother’s hand choked them back down.

“He’s my twin,” Andrew finally said. “I don’t actually know which of us is older.”

“Oh, I thought maybe younger because,” Neil trailed off.

Andrew shot him a look.

“Because of the way you took care of my ankle. It was...nice,” Neil continued.

“I’m not nice,” Andrew said darkly. 

Neil felt the corners of his lips twitch up almost against his will. “Sure,” he teased.

“There was a younger boy...in my last foster home. He was...accident prone,” Andrew said softly.

Neil went still. He remembered that same excuse being told to all his elementary school teachers, to the police, to the social workers. “And you...were you accident prone too?”

Andrew’s face paled and his right hand came off the wheel to subconsciously rub his left forearm. “You could say that,” he whispered so quietly Neil had to strain to hear him over the sound of the engine.

“Me too,” Neil said, not sure where to go from there.

Andrew laughed, loud and bright and fake. “Anyway, if the zombie apocalypse began tomorrow and you could have any three items, what would they be?”

“What?” Neil asked.

“Have you never played zombie apocalypse before?” Andrew’s eyebrows shot up as he stared at Neil.

Neil just shook his head.

“Huh,” Andrew said. “I think I would take...a rifle, a lighter, and a bat with nails.”

“No way,” Neil said. “Compound bow, clear water bottle with purification tablets and a good knife.”

“Water bottle and tablets count as two,” Andrew said. “Pick one.”

“The water bottle then,” Neil said. “And I’d still survive way longer than you.”

“Sure you would, Neil. Why do you incorrectly assume you would outlive me?” Andrew’s mouth softened, the closest thing to a smile Neil had seen on him yet.

“For one, rifles are noisy. You shoot one zombie and the rest of them are going to be running at you right away. Plus, ammo would be hard to come by. And you would be able to easily make more so once you’re out, you’re out and the rifle would be of even less use than the nail bat. Compound bow is mostly silent meaning there is more chance I’ll be able to retrieve my arrows and even if I can’t, I’ll use my knife to make more. The lighter is sort of useful. But you’ll die without water. And a clear water bottle can be used as a focus to light a fire,” Neil grinned.

“In the daytime,” Andrew argued. “What if you want a fire at night?”

“With zombies out? Nope, that fire will be a beacon to zombies and other humans. I don’t want someone coming to rob me either,” Neil explained.

Andrew grinned at him for real this time. “Okay, here’s one better. Super powered slingshot so all I need are a few rocks. No advanced carpentry required.”

They drove for hours that way, arguing and talking. It stayed mostly on the surface, zombie apocalypse turned to desert island involving first a shipwreck and then a plane crash. Those were safe conversations. There was a lot Andrew wouldn’t say and Neil knew he couldn’t ask unless he was willing to offer truth up in return. 

It was late and both of them were too tired to function behind the wheel by the time they pulled into Oklahoma City. It was nearly three in the morning and the sandwiches, the candy, and the red bull were all long gone.

They ditched the car in a random parking lot and walked two miles to get to a motel that would let them book a room without a credit card. Andrew asked for a double room but the clerk must have misunderstood because when they opened the door, there was only one queen sized bed.

“I could go yell at the clerk, see if he’ll change our room,” Andrew offered.

“We probably shouldn’t draw too much attention to ourselves,” Neil said, unwilling to say the real reason he didn’t want Andrew to change their room was because it had been at least six years since he had last slept alone in a bed. And he didn’t know if he could sleep without his mother’s solid presence at his back.

Andrew glared at him. “Stay on your own side.” He removed his boots before slipping under the covers but left the rest of his clothing on. Neil shrugged and followed his lead. He didn’t have anything to change into anyway.

He lay in the darkness listening to Andrew breathe. He had been exhausted in the car but now that he was flat on his back in the bed, he couldn’t even close his eyes.

“I can hear you thinking,” Andrew said.

Neil carefully turned onto his side, facing Andrew in the dark, careful to keep a good foot of space between them.

“My mother used to hold me when we slept,” he whispered into the space between them. “It was the only way we felt safe enough to close our eyes.”

Andrew continued to breathe evenly beside him. Neil wondered if he had fallen asleep.

“His name was Tommy,” Andrew said. “He was six. I tried to protect him and I couldn’t. My foster family. They had a biological child. He was...he hurt Tommy.”

“Where is Tommy now?” Neil whispered.

“Dead,” Andrew said, voice flat and expressionless. “Everyone said it was an accident. No one listened to me. So I left. I found out I had a twin brother six months ago. And things are shit for him. Maybe…”

“Maybe you can protect him,” Neil finished.

“Yeah,” Andrew sighed. 

Neil felt his body relax and melt into the bed. His eyelids finally grew heavy. Andrew’s breath deepened beside him and Neil let it lull him into sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For day 3 of andreil week 2019, very loosely tying into the theme of phobias.

Neil was warm. He felt himself slowly drifting back into consciousness. There was a presence beside him and he knew it was unfamiliar but it didn’t feel unsafe. He opened his eyes. Andrew was already awake and lay facing him.

Neil yawned. “Time’s’it?”

“Almost ten,” Andrew said.

“You could have woken me up,” Neil said, scrambling to get out of the bed.

Andrew shrugged. “We needed the sleep.”

Neil hopped into the shower, finally ridding himself of the stench of smoke. He only had one clean outfit in the duffel bag and he didn’t know when he would next be able to do laundry, but it felt so good to be clean again. He left the room and Andrew tossed him a breakfast sandwich from the McDonald’s across the street before heading into the bathroom for his own shower.

Finding a new car took them longer than Neil had hoped. They walked another few miles in the opposite direction so no one would expect the two stolen cars were related. THey finally came across another old car. It was dirty and 10 or 12 parking tickets were tucked under the windshield wiper on the driver’s side.

It was but a moment’s work for Neil to break in and get the car started, thereby securing his place as driver for the first leg of the trip.

“How are you so good at that?” Andrew asked. “It took me like half an hour and three different wiki-hows to get the other one started.”

“I think I’m more impressed that you took that long with one car and didn’t get caught,” Neil teased.

Andrew’s face turned a dull red. “Shut up, this is my first foray into being a criminal. There is a bit of a learning curve. Besides it was parked out back behind the garage and no one had touched it in months, not since...Drake got his new car. They’ll probably thank me for taking it off their hands.”

“Should we not have ditched it?” Neil asked.

“Nah, it’s fine. I don’t want him coming after me. At least this way he doesn’t know where I’m going next,” Andrew shuddered a little.

“Is Drake…” Neil started.

“Foster brother,” Andrew cut him off. “And the less said about him the better.”

“Did he…” Neil asked, softer.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Andrew snarled and Neil decided to try a different line of questioning.

“If your brother is living with your uncle, why were you in foster care?” 

Andrew glared at him. “What makes you think you are entitled to any of this? I know nothing about you other than that your mother is dead. Where’s your father? Why aren’t you living with him? Why are you running, Neil?” he yelled.

Neil stared straight out the windshield but he couldn’t see the road. His breath came faster and faster in his chest. The sun was so bright and so hot and it was choking him and his mother’s voice shouted in his ears to run, run, run, and never look back.

When he could see again, Andrew was practically in his lap. The car was parked haphazardly on the side of the road. Andrew’s hand was a welcome, grounding weight on the back of his neck, and his voice was a path that Neil could follow back into sanity.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Andrew was saying. “Your reasons for running are your own.”

“Shit,” Neil said, taking in a deep breath and clenching shaky hands on the wheel.

“Are you okay?” Andrew asked.

“I’m fine,” Neil said, gripping the wheel tighter and willing his hands to stop trembling.

“I’m beginning to sense a pattern with you,” Andrew slid back into his own seat. Neil missed the weight of him.

“Can you drive?” Neil choked out.

Andrew nodded and didn’t tease Neil for his buckling legs as they passed in front of the car.

Neil breathed in the passenger seat, shutting his eyes and listening to the sounds of the road and Andrew humming lightly as he drove.

Neil wasn’t afraid of spiders or snakes or mice. He hadn’t been too bothered about small spaces or needles. The thing that stole the breath from his lungs was this, letting himself be known. Because to tell someone the truth was to bring them inside his hell of a life.

He took a deep breath, and another, and one more for good measure. He didn’t know how to begin. The only person he had spoken to for more than five minutes in the last ten years was his mother and she already knew his entire story. Every interaction had been about deflecting suspicion, appearing normal. He didn’t know how to start.

He shrugged his shoulder out through the neck of the t-shirt to expose one of his scars, the most shocking one, the hot iron that had scorched his skin at the hands of his father.

Andrew glanced over but his face didn’t change. “Mother or father?” he asked.

“This was my father,” Neil said, half choking on the words. “He wasn’t a good man.”

Andrew snorted but didn’t interrupt.

“He’s a gangster or something, up in Baltimore. The Butcher?”

Andrew’s eyebrows rose but he managed to keep from any other visible signs of shock.

“He was in trouble with some bad people. I don’t know who. He was going to give me up to them to pay his debts. The night before I was meant to go, my mother took me and ran. We’ve been running ever since. I don’t know how to stop,” Neil admitted.

Andrew drove in silence for a while. “If you were stuck in a cabin in the woods by yourself and you could only bring three movies, which ones would you bring?”

“I don’t really watch movies,” Neil said.

“You’re serious?” Andrew asked. “Oh my god. Okay, I am going to list my five favourite movies and tell you all about them and when we get somewhere with a television, you are picking one of those and watching it with me.”

Neil laughed in spite of himself and felt the thick knot of fear at his core unravel a little as Andrew started talking.

* * *

Supper in Memphis was a quiet affair. Andrew had finally seemed to exhaust his store of facts about his favourite tv shows and movies and Neil had very little to add to the conversation to keep it going. Andrew kept looking at Neil as if considering something and Neil had no idea how to respond to it.

Neil set his fork down after cleaning the pasta off his plate. Andrew was still picking at his fries and drawing shapes in the ketchup on his plate.

“I’m gay,” Andrew blurted out, clenching his fists and rising halfway out of his chair as if to run.

“Okay,” Neil said.

“Okay?” Andrew asked. 

“Yeah, okay,” Neil said.

“Okay,” Andrew breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I don’t know what I am,” Neil said. “My mother beat me the one time she caught me kissing someone. I wasn’t too keen on experimenting after that.”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Andrew said, smushing his napkin into the pile of ketchup on his plate.

Neil dropped some cash on the table to cover the meal and the tip and went back out to the car. The sun was starting to go down and it was getting cooler. Neil rubbed his arms with his hands and remembered regretfully the blood stained hoodie that had burned in the car with his mother.

“Was it a girl? Or a boy?” Andrew asked, startling him out of his thoughts.

“What?” Neil asked.

“That you kissed,” Andrew very carefully didn’t look at him. “Girl or boy?”

“Oh...girl. And she kissed me really,” a nervous energy was growing in Neil’s stomach and he wished he hadn’t eaten so much pasta.

“Do you want to?” Andrew asked, kicking a pebble in the parking lot and watching it skitter across the old and broken pavement.

“Kiss a boy?” Neil watched Andrew’s neck grow red.

“Kiss me,” Andrew clarified.

“Oh,” Neil said. “Um...yes?”

“Is that an answer or another question,” Andrew still wouldn’t look him in the eye.

“It’s a yes,” Neil said more firmly.

Andrew finally turned to face him. They were very close in height so Neil only had to bend his head a little and their lips could meet. It took him a moment to find the rhythm. Andrew seemed as unsure as he did. They bumped noses, and scraped teeth, and it was so strange to have another person’s face right beside his and breathing the same air.

Andrew finally pulled back. “Was it good?”

Neil considered, knowing that Andrew wouldn’t want him to lie. “One more?” he asked, lowering his head one more time.

It was smoother, wetter, a little more coordinated, and Neil closed his eyes and let Andrew push him back into the car and keep kissing him. He wanted to run his fingers through Andrew’s hair but all Andrew had mentioned was kissing so he put his hands behind them and focused all his attention on the one point where they were connected.

They were both gasping when they pulled apart.

“Good,” Neil said, feeling an irrepressible grin break across his face.

Andrew whirled around again so his back was to Neil. “Don’t look at me like that.”

Neil didn’t stop smiling but he climbed into the driver’s seat of the car and left Andrew standing outside to compose himself.

They were quiet for a long time after that. The sun sank lower and lower on the horizon and Neil was driving in the dark. He glanced over at Andrew every once in a while as the hour grew later, wondering if they were going to stop for another night or push through another few hundred miles to make it to Columbia that night. He was about to open his mouth to ask Andrew what he thought when Andrew spoke instead.

“My mother didn’t want me.”

Neil didn’t say anything, just nodded to indicate he was listening.

“She gave birth to twins. She gave us both up at first but then she had a crisis of conscience, just enough to take my brother Aaron back, but not enough for two,” Andrew said bitterly.

“I’m sorry,” Neil said.

“Don’t be,” Andrew cut him off harshly. “I am not convinced I ended up with the short end of the stick. I knew my foster parents didn’t love me. And I didn’t love them. When they hurt me, I knew why. But Aaron loved her. And he’s mourning for her now that she’s gone.”

“Your mother is dead too?” Neil asked.

“Overdose,” Andrew said. 

“How often did you get to see your brother?” 

“I didn’t even know he existed,” Andrew clenched his fists tight in his lap. “We figured it out on Tumblr of all places. We had a few mutuals who would tag our selfies with the wrong name. So we talked because it was a funny coincidence and then the truth came out.”

“Wow,” Neil said. “That’s…”

“Unbelievable, I know.”

“And now what? Are you planning on moving in with your uncle?” Neil asked.

“No,” Andrew said firmly. “He’s the worst kind of bigot, the one who thinks he’s got God on his side. We’re going to stay with our cousin Nicky. He’s going to university up in Washington. He’ll give us a place to stay but he didn’t have the funds to come get us.”

“Washington, huh?” Neil asked.

Andrew got very still. “Yeah.”

“And you’ll have a brother and a cousin there and you won’t need…” Neil gestured between him and Andrew. “...whatever this is.”

“This is nothing,” Andrew said automatically.

“Oh,” Neil said, trying not to let on just how much that felt like a bullet to the chest. “I guess you can just let me out in the nearest town.”

Andrew took a couple of deep breaths. “Shit. Neil. I didn’t mean…”

“Sure you did,” Neil said. “You just hit me with your car. And kissed me in a parking lot.”

“Neil, stay. This is...I don’t know what this is. And I’ll never find out if I leave you in a random town in South Carolina,” Andrew’s voice was soft, only just audible over the sound of the engine.

“What’s Nicky going to think if you show up with a stray in tow?” Neil laughed, feeling the oddest compulsion to reach across the space between them and grip Andrew’s hand tight.

Andrew seemed to read his mind because cold fingers wound around his, even as the other boy turned to stare out the window.

It was just before dawn when they arrived in Columbia. Andrew must have texted Aaron because he was out sitting on the curb with a couple bags of stuff, more than Aaron and Neil’s belongings put together.

Aaron scowled, a look at once familiar and completely alien. “Who the hell is this?”

“This is Neil,” Andrew said, tightening his grip on Neil’s hand. “He’s coming with us.”


End file.
